The proposed site for a new Sounds stadium sits between Jackson and Harrison streets and between Third Avenue North and Fifth Avenue North. Architect Ron Gobbell says the site is easy to build a ballpark on because it's flat, accessible and 'we've got no rock to deal with, which is almost unheard of in Nashville.' / John Partipilo / The Tennessean

PROPOSED BALLPARK BY THE NUMBERS

The seven years since the Metro Council last approved a new ballpark for the Nashville Sounds have brought a new council, new mayor, new owners of the minor league baseball team — and a new construction price.

But the price hasn’t moved in the direction one might expect.

If the Sounds had managed to follow through on plans to build a riverfront stadium after the council signed off on the deal in February 2006, it would have cost an estimated $43 million. The plan the council has begun considering — and could approve within two weeks — at Sulphur Dell would cost $37 million, despite being similar in size.

While the lower cost seems to defy logic and economics, given the double-digit cumulative inflation rate over the past seven years, people involved in the process say there are good reasons for it.

One of those reasons: The city, which would own the new ballpark, would be writing the checks up front.

“This is what we can afford,” said Rich Riebeling, Mayor Karl Dean’s finance director and one of the chief negotiators of the current deal. “That’s my instructions to everybody: We’re going to build a good ballpark with what we’ve got.

“It’s based on what I think is reasonable for the city to have to be on the hook for.”

Ron Gobbell, one of the architects working for the city on the project, said Metro is clearly “paying attention” to costs. But the proposed site, which sits between Jackson and Harrison streets and between Third Avenue North and Fifth Avenue North, also is much less complicated for builders than the 2006-era property, the former Nashville Thermal Transfer Plant site on the downtown side of the Cumberland River.

“This site could not be easier to build a ballpark on,” Gobbell said. “The site’s flat and easily accessible and not part of an urban fabric. It’s easier to get to it and get in and out of it. We’ve got no rock to deal with, which is almost unheard of in Nashville.

“We’ve got a good plan going forward to get us a good, quality park,” he said, adding that new stadium renderings will be available next week.

“Interest rates generally are lower than they were (seven years ago), and I think with the city’s credit backing the bonds, it allows the lowest effective interest rate you can have in the market.”

New vs. old plans

Dean plans to have Metro pay the full $37 million construction cost — plus $23 million for land acquisition and $5 million for capitalized interest — by issuing municipal bonds. A mix of revenue streams, including lease payments by the Sounds and property taxes from a $50 million development the team’s owners are planning, would pay off most of the city’s $4.3 million annual debt, leaving Metro with a $345,000 annual payment for 30 years if everything worked according to the mayor’s plan.

The Sounds have not offered many details about their development plans thus far. In the 2006 deal, a Baltimore-based developer planned to build $200 million of hotels, condominiums, shops and offices around the riverfront ballpark, with property taxes generated by the developments helping to pay off construction debt.

That deal fell apart in 2007 as the Sounds and the developer fought over who was at fault for failing to line up financing. The Sounds’ ownership changed hands about 18 months later.

The earlier plan’s size fluctuated, partly because the ballpark was never fully designed. As of September 2006, it was set to hold about 10,000 people. The new plan is the same size, including 8,500 fixed seats and space that can accommodate an additional 1,500 fans.

Unique to Nashville

The Charlotte Knights plan to open a 10,000-capacity ballpark with 8,800 fixed seats in downtown Charlotte, N.C., next spring. It will cost $54 million, almost 46 percent more than the Sounds’ stadium would cost. But the public investment in the Charlotte facility is much smaller; the Knights are spending $38 million, while Charlotte and Mecklenburg County are contributing $8 million each.

Gobbell, who said he wasn’t familiar with the Charlotte designs, said Nashville would get an intimate “neighborhood ballpark.”

“This is going to be unique to Nashville,” he said.

Riebeling said Sounds fans and taxpayers would be happy with the result, which would open in April 2015 — seven years after the Sounds could have started playing by the river.

The Triple-A team affiliated with the Milwaukee Brewers is even more eager now than it was then to move on from Greer Stadium, which opened in 1978.

“At the end of the day we will have a very good product, an excellent product, and obviously it’s going to be a very major step up from where we are today,” Riebeling said, referring to Greer. “Any project, there’s never enough money. You just have to decide on what the number’s going to be, and everybody’s got to work to that number.”

Contact Michael Cass at 615-259-8838 or mcass@tennessean.com. Ask him a question on Twitter @tnmetro.